Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov was born on November 10, 1919, in the village of Kurya, Altai Territory, to a large peasant family. Kalashnikov began designing an assault rifle while in hospital after being wounded in the Battle of Bryansk. Soon afterwards, he entered a competition that had been launched for a new weapon that would take the new 7.62 x 39 mm cartridge and would not jam under the adverse conditions of the Soviet frontline. His winning entry, the "Mikhtim" became the prototype for the development of a family of guns.

The Goverment highly estimated M. T. Kalashnikov's serveces to the country. He was twice honoured as Hero of Socialist Labour (1958 and 1976) and became Stalin Prize (1949) and Lenin Prize (1964) laureate. In 1969 he was given the rank of Colonel and in 1971 awarded degree of Doctor of engineering science. M. T. Kalashnikov was decorated with three Orders of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner of Labour, Order of the Great Patriotic War of the First Class, Order of the Red Star and many medals.

Eugene Morrison Stoner (November 22, 1922 in Gosport, Indiana; died April 24, 1997 (aged 74) in Palm City, Florida) is the man most associated with the design of the AR-15, which was adopted by the military as the M16. He is regarded by most historians, along with John Browning and John Garand, as one of the United States’ most successful military firearms designers of the 20th century.